The Brewers in Ft Worth, Texas

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I had a few people saying they attempted to comment but were unable. I have changed the permissions from the default and have enabled commenting to all, so hopefully we won't get any SPAM. And hopefully some folks we've met along the way will comment, as well!

Four generations at Mr Whiskers in McComb, Mississippi

We had a great dinner out with Great Grandpa & Grandma Boyd, Grandaddy Boyd and Aunt Patsy, Dad (me), as well as Carter and Kyle. Mr. Whiskers serves great fried catfish here in McComb, MS. We even got put in a nice quiet room away from the main dining area which was conducive to nice family conversation together. Well, until the loudest family of about 15 showed up and took the big table behind us. As I mentioned to the boys before the trip, we'll make memories the whole way, not all of them good. We'll always remember the loud family at Mr. Whiskers, but in the end it is all a good family memory we'll always talk about!

Ethanol Free Gas in McComb!

If you look carefully, you will see the sign in front of this gas station that says "NO ETHANOL." I knew about this station from my Aunt Patsy, so as mentioned in an earlier post I tried to time my fuel stops so I could get here on fumes and get a full tank of Ethanol Free gas, and we did -- 37 gallons worth! Hopefully our first third of the drive starting from here in Mississippi towards New Mexico tomorrow will be completely vapor lock free, even though we do have the auxiliary fuel pump that remedies the issue anyhow.

Checkpoint #1 -- McComb, Mississippi

We have arrived at our first waypoint -- Grandma & Grandpa Boyd's house in McComb, Mississippi. Today's drive was another fairly uneventful, yet long day. I forgot to check the miles driven today, but about 500. Started a bit before 9am and got here a little before 9pm. We had lunch (as posted earlier) at Chad's Family Restaurant. If you're ever driving the Natchez Trace Parkway, consider timing a meal stop at Chad's in Collinwood, TN (southern part of Tennessee on the Trace). Good cheap buffet. Today we had pork chops, mashed potatoes/gravy, fried okra, peas, lima beans, and chocolate cake covered with powdered sugar.

Before we got on the parkway, we did have one brief episode of vapor lock. It wasn't too long after we'd filled up at Hess (which was about 12 cents per gallon cheaper than the other stations all around it). Hmm. The vapor lock occurred as we pulled away from one of the only stoplights that we had. I flipped on my auxiliary fuel pump and that solved the problem immediately. Once we got out of the commercial area and back into open road, I turned off the aux. fuel pump and never had vapor lock again. I filled up again after Chad's in Collinwood. I learned that in McComb there is a station with non-ethanol fuel, so when we got to Jackson, MS I put in 8 gallons so that when we fill up again in McComb it will be a full tank with no ethanol -- but now I'm in McComb and on fumes so our very next stop will be that gas station. Grandpa says it is only half a mile away, and I told him that's good because I think I have three quarters of a mile of gas left. :-)

We've turned off our tracker for the next day because we're relaxing in McComb until our departure scheduled for Saturday morning. We will, however, look at the track of tropical storm Don and see what it looks like for the next few days for our scheduled drive across Texas. If it would do us better to start off earlier to beat the storm across Texas we might leave tomorrow night, but I really hope we get two nights of relaxing here in McComb! If anyone has foresight into what the weather across the I20 corridor across Texas will be for the next couple days, let me know!

We'll post some pics of the four generations tomorrow -- Grandpa Boyd, Grandaddy Boyd, Me, and the boys.

Rain on the natchez trace parkway

Lunch at Chad's

Travel going well but another long driving day. Chad's is a great restaurant just off the Natchez Trace Parkway in Collinwood, TN.